Genre: Mythological Fiction
Pages: 372
Edition: Hardcover, kindle edition
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Year of publication: 2019
RATING: ✰✰✰✰ ¾ (4.75/5)
“What occurred when I was alone in the
darkness under the sorrow tree, you don’t know. You don’t know my despair. You don’t
even know my exhilaration, how it felt—first in the forest, and then in Ayodhya—when
I was the most beloved woman in creation.”
The Forest of Enchantments gives us a
window to watch the epic Ramayan in all its flamboyance through the eyes of the
female lead, Sita. Through the course of generations, Sita’s role in the epic
has been cut short and she has been represented in broken fragments as the
story has progressed.
Through her novel, Divakaruni fills
these gaps by unearthing Sita as a separate character, fresh yet ancient,
distant yet familiar, known yet unknown. In this book, Sita transcends to cast
a much broader influence, and impact each segment of the story. Apart from being
the princess of Mithila and the queen of Ayodhya, we get glimpses of all her other
identities. Hindered by flaws and outshined by glorious hidden potentials, she
comes about to be real and tangible. She is shown as a fierce protector and
upholder of women rights, along with being a sympathetic healer and master
tactician.
Not just Sita—all the other female
characters in the epic get to share their stories. Surpanakha, Ravan’s beloved
sister; Mandodari, Ravan’s favourite yet overlooked wife; Sunaina, Sita’s
mother and her pillar of strength; Kaushalya, Ram’s mother and the first queen
of Dashrath— they have been allowed to shine in all their glory and break out
of the stereotypical ideas they’d gathered over the centuries. Guided by
Divakaruni’s magical writing and her well-formulated research, we get to see multiple
dimensions of these personalities, where we learn to accept their imperfections
and thereby embrace them with empathy.
Sita’s life is not very plain and
rosy, she has had her share of ups and downs as she’s sailed through the various
phases of her life, all of which are diverse and different. Sita takes us through
her life back in Mithila, where she existed with agility like the morning gale.
We then enter her mind as she meets Ram and the love they share, as fragrant as
the velvety rose and as clear as crystal. She then helps us familiarise ourselves
with the grand palace of Ayodhya with its many inhabitants, leading us through
the grand corridors, the majestic quarters and the palatial gardens which she rejuvenates
with her healing touch. How the palace slowly adapts to this new royal member
and how Sita brings about positive changes in the kingdom is described with mastery,
in the light of topics like equality, sovereignty and gliding over issues like
sexism, racism and personal prejudices. Her anguish when Ram accepts the exile
gracefully and her anxiousness when Laxman accompanies them leaving behind her
sister Urmila—the mental somersaults and conflicts—its all so raw as if the
readers are in it themselves.
Sita then takes us with her as she spends
years after years in the forest, accepting the hardships and embalming her pain
with any trace of affection and care she could lay her hands upon. Sides of her
relationship with Ram and Laxman, parts of it she’d never imagined she would
see, get exposed one by one. But Sita bears it all, comforting herself with the
sensual and unconditional love from Ram, and the loyalty from Laxman. The shift
of these relations is shown vividly with the advent of Surpanakha as they get
aware of the Rakshasa empire, and their mutual bonds loosen or tighten, like
the underlying delicate string of a garland that although hidden, manages to keep
the flowers knit together. But amidst these strained relationships, when Sita
gets abducted by Ravan and is given a proposal to marriage, she feels hurt and
broken. Divakaruni, through bright imageries and her play of words, paints an
image of Sita’s mental vulnerability and fragility, as she renounces any form
of indulgence to wait piously for Ram to wage a war and rescue her. New lines
are drawn as she gets visit from Mandodari, the queen of Lanka and Sarama, the
wife of Vibheshan (the brother of Ravan who switches sides by joining Ram’s forces)
and more revelations concerning Ravan’s past and Lanka emerge.
Sita’s entrapped condition in Lanka has been constructed
brick by brick with care. On one side it appears as though her mind as still as
an un-flickering flame of a burning candle, but sometime it feels as if the untamed
flames want to shoot out and burn everything defensively and take the form of a
snarling flare, engulfing the people who’ve hurt her in an act of fanatic
revenge. Post her union with Ram, she is in for another surprise—Ram questioning
her sanctity. This is a very important part of the whole story, because it is
here that we get the first clear glimpses of Ram’s dilemma when he’s torn
between duty and desire. On their return to Ayodhya, she becomes a public
figure of welfare and affection, and a symbol for revitalization. But it is not
each time that Sita is reciprocated with the same unconditional forgiveness and
understanding that she herself pursues. Although we see her atop the pyramid of
people management and promotion of women rights, at the peak of her reign she is
pushed into crooked judgements from the people, more misunderstanding from her
family and more doubts from her husband.
Towards the end of the story, as Sita
is repeatedly drawn by her residual love for Ram and whipped by the lashes of reprimand
from her past, she gives in to herself. She embraces her own soul with the imperfections
and refuses to bounce back, chalking out a tragic end for herself. Through this
act of submission, Divakaruni again manages to teach us lessons about
self-reliance and doubt, reconciliation and forgiveness, and the need to
sometime step aside from the shackles of duty and accept love as it is,
breaking apart all barriers. She transforms the epic to raise the issue about
questioning the honour of a woman and the need to prove her innocence over and
over again under societal pressure, in the frame of toxic masculinity and
fierce patriarchy.
To Ram, Sita’s last message is-- “I
forgave you a long time ago. Though I didn’t know it until now. Because this
the most important aspect of love, whose other face is compassion: It isn’t
doled out, drop by drop. It doesn’t measure who is worthy and who isn’t. It is
like the ocean. Unfathomable. Astonishing. Measureless.”
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